ஶ்ரீ ராம ஜெயம் ! Jai Shri Ram !

Everyone who has come home and knows Amma, will recognise these two pictures below –

My mother has been writing Bhagwan Ram’s name since she was a little girl and now she writes even more. I have nearly 30 notebooks filled with “ஶ்ரீ ராம ஜெயம்” (Victory to Lord Ram or the Tamil way of saying Jai Shri Ram). The earlier notebooks that she has filled with His name are part of the foundation in many temples where before the idol is placed in the sanctum sanctorum (garba griha) such notebooks filled with Rama’s name or any God’s name are placed at the base and the pedestal is built over it.

For the past five to seven years, Amma was very clear that she wants all the notebooks to be placed under the foundation of the temple that will be built at RamJanmaBhoomi at Ayodhya. We visited Ayodhya in 2018 (read about it here –  The land of 7000 temples – Ram Janma Bhoomi, Ayodhya )and since then her resolve is stronger. I tried telling her that the temple may take many years to build as the case has been dragging for so long but she was quite confident that it will happen. Well, her favourite Hanuman made it happen today !

I had a call with my fellow coaches for the ISB coaching project at 10 am and when we logged in, all of us started speaking about the Ayodhya verdict and I had the laptop on with the live updates streaming through. As soon as I told the others on the call at 11.08 am that the Supreme Court bench has said that the temple should be built on the RamJanmaBhoomi site, everyone just dropped out of the call and wanted to see the news for themselves.

 

What a historic day today is !! Krishnan and I were very emotional and in tears because for the first time, it felt as though Hindus were valued in India, that our feelings matter and our way of life has a chance … I don’t mean any disrespect to any other religion, but there has been a concerted effort to downplay India’s history, culture and its Hindu ethos. Every Hindu festival is being dissed, Hindu Gods are being denigrated and our way of life has been taken advantage of. India’s ancient wisdom has been mocked at and in many parts of this great land Hindus have been reduced to a minority. Christians have Christian countries, Muslims have  Muslim countries, the Jews have one country and Hindus NONE …. how is that fair? Its a lot of these feelings that makes many of us so emotional – even people like Krishnan and I who aren’t necessarily very religious but are very proud of our country’s lineage and cultural ethos.

To celebrate I made “kesari”/ksheera/sooji halwa and pongal in the afternoon.

We have lit all the lamps that we had put on the balcony for Diwali again because truly for us, Diwali is today!! We wish to celebrate the 2020 Deepawali by visiting Ayodhya during the Deepotsav.

I told Amma in the morning that she shouldn’t bother Hanuman today because he is busy with the Supreme Court Ayodhya bench 🙂 and well, he did his magic. My 50th birthday year is a bumper year of gifts – first, Mr. Modi came back to power with an even bigger mandate, second, J&K became a part of India totally and now the RamJanmaBhoomi case that has been on and off since 1528 has been resolved. So thrilled.

Jai Hind. Jai Hind Ki Sena.